New Orleans murder defendant alleges his lawyer’s fiance set up the killing | New Orleans

In a blockbuster development in a long-running case that exposed a multimillion-dollar staged-accident fraud scheme, a man linked to the murder of a key federal witness recently pleaded guilty – and alleged that his attorney’s fiance, a disbarred lawyer, set up the killing.

With his family looking on, Ryan “Red” Harris agreed to a 35-year sentence in the murder in exchange for his cooperation in the massive case, which has led to more than 50 guilty pleas by people who admitted to intentionally ramming into 18-wheel trucks then collecting money from fraudulent lawsuits.

In addition to the wholesale fraud, Harris’s confession – contained in a six-page “factual basis” that he signed – directly implicates two other men as being responsible for ordering and carrying out the murder, dramatically raising the stakes for those defendants. Under federal law, killing a federal witness could be punishable by death.

Harris, 36, claims that Leon “Chunky” Parker was the triggerman, fatally shooting cooperating witness Cornelius Garrison in 2020 in the house he shared with his mother. Garrison had been cooperating with the FBI for months and, shortly before his death, told close confidants that he feared for his life.

“On September 22, 2020, Parker murdered Garrison as part of a scheme with Harris and Alfortish to prevent Garrison from further cooperating with the federal government and exposing the scheme to stage collisions,” the factual basis states. “Shortly before the murder, Harris saw Parker in possession of a firearm, mask and gloves that Harris believed Parker would use to murder Garrison.”

“After the murder,” the document continues, “Parker told Harris that he murdered Garrison and that Alfortish paid him for the murder.”

Harris also points the finger at co-defendant and disbarred attorney Sean Alfortish – who was engaged to marry Harris’s attorney, Vanessa Motta, a former Hollywood stuntwoman – as the person who paid Parker to commit the murder.

Motta is also charged in the case – with fraud. She had raised eyebrows after graduating from Loyola University New Orleans’ law school by quickly becoming one of the city’s busiest accident attorneys.

Harris’s girlfriend, Jovanna Gardner, had previously pleaded guilty to helping plot Garrison’s killing, which was carried out inside his apartment in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood. She also acknowledged that Harris worked closely with Alfortish and Motta in accident lawsuits that the plaintiffs have since admitted were fraudulent.

In WWL Louisiana’s investigative series Highway Robbery, Motta and Alfortish were named as early as 2019 as targets of the federal probe. She was in court on 8 January when Alfortish, wearing handcuffs, shackles and an orange prison jumpsuit, dropped his bid to argue for release on bail after learning about Harris’s plea deal. The couple have a toddler together and share a $1m home in New Orleans’ tony Lake Vista neighborhood.

A former magistrate judge in the New Orleans-area suburban municipality of Kenner, Alfortish lost his law license and served more than two years in prison after being convicted in 2011 for rigging an election to remain president of the Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association and for raiding the group’s coffers to treat himself to lavish perks.

Indicted along with Motta and Alfortish in December was attorney Jason Giles, who was charged along with the King Firm, where he is a partner. The King Firm and Motta’s law firm were also named as defendants.

Parker, 51, argued for bail in a dramatic court hearing in which an FBI agent testified about Parker’s links to Garrison’s killing. Parker was ordered held without bail as a possible danger to the community and remains behind bars.

None of the attorneys for the defendants offered comments after Harris’s guilty plea.

A former US attorney of New Orleans, Harry Rosenberg, said Harris’s confession is a gamechanger for federal authorities as they seek to expose the upper-level workings of the long-running and lucrative staged car accident scheme.

“It was a huge quantum leap in [the] investigation,” Rosenberg said. “It is extremely powerful evidence that the government has amassed through Harris.”